Welcome, please come in. Just don't look in there, or in there, or behind that door, or perhaps you can just close your eyes...

Last night as I walked through my house, I noticed that there truly was no single clean spot anywhere.  My kitchen counters were cluttered with the randomness of items dropped off in the rush of entering and exiting the house.  My den was blanketed in the crumbs and residue cup rings from our family night dinner and a movie.  My living room was littered with toys of play battles, play kitchen, Chinese Checkers, and other items dropped and forgotten.  The stairs...yep, even the stairs...had tons of stored up items on the steps ready to bring up later, but still sitting there waiting.  Then I seriously had to gulp down my humiliation as I walked into the upstairs restroom that the kids use in the rush of getting ready for bed.  Out loud, I literally said to myself, "Your mother would NEVER have allowed this!"

I tried to comfort myself with the liberating thought that maybe, just maybe, the phrase "cleanliness is next to godliness" might actually mean that if you teach them godliness, then cleanliness will eventually follow..next? Right?!

You may judge me thinking that I have enough kids that they should have those responsibilities, and you'd be right...they do.

You might suggest a plan on how I could manage the pick up of my home in a better manner, and you'd be right....I normally do.

Believe me that I judge myself harsher than anyone else possibly could.  But then I walked into the dark bedroom and saw my darlings sleeping without a care, knowing that they are loved and treasured. 

And here's what I remembered from Ecclesiastes 3...  "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven...He has made everything beautiful in it's time.  There is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil-this is God's gift to man."

There is a time to clean, do chores, purge, scrub, and make perfect.  But there is also a time to relax and enjoy.

There is a time in my life where my house will not be pristine, orderly, and spotless.  But there will also be a time when it will be decluttered of toys, sticky fingerprints, leftover cups, and will appear vacuumed, dusted, and sorted.

While I am in this particular time, perhaps I can eat, drink, and take pleasure in my toil as a momma.  I can focus on this "gift" that God has given me.  I can focus on the "why" of the mess, that here are five children playing, learning to do good, loving, and living.  Perhaps kids' messes here and there are much more tolerable than my incessant reign of terror on them "knowing better."

May my kiddos remember the love of God and Mom, and may I remember this time is truly a gift.